Let Axl Rose himself describe his drinking prowess back in the Appetite for Destruction days: “I would out drink [Slash], and then he would pass out. And it was great, ’cause he would pass out, and piss his pants, and then I would get to be with the girl.” That’s one of the roughly 9,382,429 stories out there involving Axl doing something “unseemly,” be it drinking himself stupid, snorting an unknown powder, snorting an unknown powder from a hooker’s butt, or playing “My World” live. But he’s a changed man, according to Vulture’s Steve Fishman.

Three years ago, the legendary rocker was looking for a New York apartment to rent. He thought it might be time to move from Malibu and wanted to test out New York…Axl came by to see the apartment twice. Once my wife was there, and she reported that he played enthusiastically with our dog and snorted at people who like spaces “bathed in light,” as the Realtors say. He loved the place.

Of course, I was worried. Axl, after all, had a reputation for wrecking places. But he was said to have reformed as he aged. By the time he inspected my apartment, he was almost 50 years old and getting the belly to prove it. He’d apparently developed a respect for property rights — those of others included.

Plus, he agreed to pay an extraordinary rent and, well, I needed the money. Just in case, he offered six months’ rent as a security deposit. (Via)

A year passed with no sign of Axl, but he renewed the lease, at an “increased rent.”

As far as I can tell, Axl never set foot in my place after his initial viewings. I wondered if he remembered that he’d rented it. Maybe a superstar lives this way — renting apartments just in case, and then forgetting about them. Still, the rent checks kept coming, which is all I cared about. When it came time to renew for a third year, negotiations began, but then rationality — his management’s — prevailed. Axl’s ghost rental ended in the beginning of 2013, at the two-year mark.

Axl truly is the Chinese Democracy of people: he takes forever to show up, if he shows up at all.